Staging a three-bed on a $2,000 budget
What we rent, what we buy and what we leave alone, with the invoice from a Somerville listing that sold in nine days.
$1,960
The whole invoice
A three-bed in Somerville
3
Rooms we staged
Of the seven in the house
9
Days to an offer
From the first viewing
A staging company quoted our seller $6,400 to dress the whole house for two months. We did three rooms for $1,960 and the place went under agreement in nine days. Here is the invoice.
What we rented
| Item | Two months |
|---|---|
| Sofa, two armchairs, coffee table | $690 |
| Dining table and four chairs | $310 |
| Bed frame, mattress and linen, main bedroom | $285 |
| Two rugs and three lamps | $240 |
| Rental, delivered and collected | $1,525 |
Rental is the right call on anything large. You are dressing the house for eight weeks, the pieces go back, and nobody has to move a sofa into a condo they have not bought yet.
What we bought
- White cotton bedding and towels, $180, because rented linen photographs tired
- Two large plants, $95, both still alive at the seller's new place
- Bulbs for every fitting in the house at one color temperature, $70
- Door mat, hooks and one mirror for the hall, $90
That is $435, and the seller kept all of it. We buy anything a photograph gets close to and rent everything a photograph sees across a room.
The four rooms we left alone
The two children's bedrooms, the basement and the third bedroom that had become an office stayed as they were, tidied and nothing more. Buyers do not need a staged office to understand a room with a window and a radiator in it.
What we did spend time on was the front. The path got swept, the storm door got fixed, and the bins moved to the side of the house. Everybody walking up that path decides something before they reach the door.
Keep reading
What we would hand you next
4 August 20266 min
Five upgrades that pay back at sale, and four that never do
Read this guide
12 August 20267 min
What closing actually costs in Massachusetts, line by line
Read this guide
28 July 20265 min
Reading a listing photo: what a wide lens is hiding
Read this guide
Book a viewing
Tell us the street and we will open the door
An agent replies within two hours, in person rather than by autoresponder. If nothing on the site fits, say so. Most of what we sell is not on it yet.
- An agent replies within 2 hours
- One agent, first call to closing
- No obligation to list or to buy
- No fee until the sale completes